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PARTY AT GROUND ZERO!
written by Angelo Moore, Kendall Jones and John Norwood Fisher of Fishbone in 1985

FISHBONE!

Fishbone! “Party At Ground Zero” music video directed by Henry Selick in 1985:

And Fishbone “Party At Ground Zero” LIVE at Fenders Ballroom, Long Beach, CA in 1987:

The song is about “Dancing around Armageddon” and having a good time without worry or concern….

Party at ground zero – A “B” movie starring youAnd the world will turn to flowing – Pink vapor stew!Johnny, go get your gun, for the commies are in our hemisphere todayIvan, go fly your MIG, for the Yankee imperialists have come to playJohnny goes to Sally’s house to kiss her goodbyeBut Daddy says to spend the nightThey make love ’till the early morning lightFor tomorrow Johnny goes to fightJohnny, Ivan, Ian, everybody come along for our nations need new heroesTime to sing a new war song[CHORUS]Please do not fear ’cause Fishbone is here to say (say what?)Just have a good time the stop sign is far awayThe toilet has flushed and green lights are a ghostAnd drop drills will be extinctSpeedracer cloud has comeThey know not what they’ve doneSin has just wonThe planet is a crumb…[CHORUS]

The term “Ground Zero” is generally used to mean the point directly above or below the earth’s surface closest to the detonation when a nuclear explosion takes place. The term is also used to mark the point of the most severe damage or destruction.

Inauguration Day has taken place on January 20 every year following a presidential election since 1937. Trump is scheduled to be sworn in as the 45th President of the United States on January 20, 2017 around noon on the West Lawn of the United States Capitol. The president-elect and vice president-elect will both take the Oath of Office, followed by the inaugural address and the presidential procession and inaugural parade down Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House.

The United States Capitol in Washington D.C.

“I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”– The Oath of Office of the President of the United States (as mandated by the United States Constitution in Article II, Section One, Clause 8)

More than 50 House Democrats are planning to boycott the inauguration in Washington D.C. after Trump’s divisive campaign, and most recently his twitter attack this week on civil rights activist Congressman John Lewis (after he called Trump’s victory illegitimate due to Russian interference in the election). And 200,000+ people are also expected in the city the day after for the Women’s March on Washington to protest Trump’s election.

Trump is scheduled to be sworn in on January 20, 2017

Our Thoughts on Trump’s Inauguration:

The President of the United States is the head of state and head of government elected by the citizens (well, actually the Electoral College) of the United States of America to a four year term of office. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces the most expensive military (with the second largest nuclear arsenal) in the world.

NOTE: During the Cold War, a snack bar that used to be located in the open space in the center of the Pentagon was nicknamed “Cafe Ground Zero, the deadliest hot dog stand in the world.” Soviet satellites saw groups of military officers entering and exiting the hot dog stand at about the same time every day. They concluded that the stand was the entrance to an underground bunker.

The Pentagon – Arlington, Virginia

“Rumor has it that during the Cold War the Russians never had any less than two missiles aimed at this hot dog stand. They thought this was the Pentagon’s most top secret meeting room, and the entire Pentagon was a large fortress built around this hot dog stand. They thought the officers were going to get their top secret briefings in a protected area, but really they were just going to get lunch” – Brett Eaton, an information and communications officer for Washington Headquarters Services

Cafe Ground Zero was torn down in 2006 and a new building was built in its place. The Pentagon was declared a national historic landmark in 1992 and the courtyard is one of five historically protected features of the building. The hot dog stand was replaced by a modern building of roughly the same size and exactly the same shape.

Cafe Ground Zero at the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia (torn down in 2006)

The New Building: The Center Courtyard Cafe at the Pentagon (opened in 2008)

Construction of the Pentagon was completed in approximately 16 months at a total cost of $83 million. Ground was broken September 11, 1941 and the building was dedicated on January 15, 1943. The Pentagon is the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989 and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1992.

Designed by American architect George Bergstrom (1876–1955), the building is 77 ft tall, and each of the five sides of the building is 921 ft long with a five-acre central plaza. It has five floors above ground and two basement levels. One of the world’s largest office buildings, the total square footage is about 6,500,000 square feet. More than half, 3,700,000 square feet is office space. The concentric rings are designated “A” through “E” from the center out with additional “F” and “G” rings in the basement. “E” Ring offices have the outside view and are generally occupied by senior officials. Supposedly, it’s possible for a person to walk between any two points in the Pentagon in less than seven minutes.

The Pentagon After 9/11

On September 11, 2001, exactly 60 years after the building’s construction began, American Airlines Flight Flight 77 (from Washington Dulles International Airport to Los Angeles International Airport) was hijacked and deliberately flown into the west side of the Pentagon at 9:37am, killing 189 people according to the official report. 59 civilians and 5 terrorists on the airplane were killed, as were 70 civilians and 55 military personnel in the building. The damaged sections of the Pentagon were rebuilt in 2002 and the occupants moved back in August. The America‘s HeroesMemorial and a chapel opened in 2002 and is located where Flight 77 crashed into the building. The Memorial is open seven days a week, year-round and is the only place at the Pentagon where photography is permitted.

The American Flag on the Pentagon for the 6th Anniversary of 9/11

After the attack on 9-11, the destroyed World Trade Center’s 15 acre site in New York City became known as “Ground Zero” and is now the new The World Trade Center and the National September 11th Memorial and Museum.

“Ground Zero” after 9-11 at the World Trade Center in New York City

Views from the WTC in 1994:

Manhattan from the World Trade Center – New York City 1994

New York City – View from the top of the World Trade Center

Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island – New York and New Jersey

September 11, 2001 – NEVER FORGET!

ONE WORLD TRADE CENTER

One World Trade Center (aka “Freedom Tower”) – New York City

National September 11th Memorial – New York City

September 11, 2001

Armageddon as it is written in the Book of Revelation (the last book of the Bible’s New Testament) is the prophesied location of the gathering of armies for a final battle during the end times. According to the Book of Revelation, the purpose of this gathering of kings in the “place called Armageddon” is “for the war of the great day of G-d, the Almighty.” Also called the “Revelation to John” or the “Apocalypse” it is interpreted as either a literal or a symbolic location. The term is also used to refer to any “end of the world” scenario and the climax of the ongoing struggle between good and evil.

NOTE: In religion and theology, a revelation is the revealing or disclosing of some form of truth or knowledge through communication with a deity or other supernatural entity.

Tell me who’s that writin’? John the RevelatorTell me who’s that writin’? John the RevelatorWho’s that writin’? John the Revelator…wrote the book of the seven seals!– ” John The Revelator” by Son House

Sam Moore as Reverend Morris at the Revival Meeting in the film “Blues Brothers 2000”:

The Battle of Pearl Harbor: a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor in the Hawaii Territory on the morning of Sunday, December 7, 1941.

There were also coordinated Japanese attacks on the United States in the Philippines, Guam and Wake Island and on the British Empire in Malaya, Singapore and Hong Kong.

Battleships

West Virginia: hit by two bombs, seven torpedoes, sunk; returned to service July 1944. 106 dead.

California: hit by two bombs, two torpedoes, sunk; returned to service January 1944. 100 dead.

Nevada: hit by six bombs, one torpedo, beached; returned to service October 1942. 60 dead.

Pennsylvania (ADM Kimmel’s flagship of the United States Pacific Fleet): in drydock with Cassin and Downes, hit by one bomb and debris from USS Cassin; remained in service. 9 dead.

Tennessee: hit by two bombs; returned to service February 1942. 5 dead.

Maryland: hit by two bombs; returned to service February 1942. 4 dead (including floatplane pilot shot down).

Ex-battleship (target/AA training ship)

Utah: hit by two torpedoes, capsized; total loss. 64 dead.

Cruisers

Helena: hit by one torpedo; returned to service January 1942. 20 dead.

Raleigh: hit by one torpedo; returned to service February 1942.

Honolulu: Near miss, light damage; remained in service.

Destroyers

Cassin: in drydock with Downes and Pennsylvania, hit by one bomb, burned; returned to service February 1944.

Downes: in drydock with Cassin and Pennsylvania, caught fire from Cassin, burned; returned to service November 1943.

Shaw: hit by three bombs; returned to service June 1942.

Auxiliaries

Oglala (minelayer): Damaged by torpedo hit on Helena, capsized; returned to service (as engine-repair ship) February 1944.

Vestal (repair ship): hit by two bombs, blast and fire from Arizona, beached; returned to service by August 1942.

Curtiss (seaplane tender): hit by one bomb, one crashed Japanese aircraft; returned to service January 1942. 19 dead.

Pearl Harbor on October 30, 1941, looking southwest

Monday, December 8th, 1941

On December 8th, 1941, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the United States Congress declared war on Japan.

“December 7th, 1941, A Date Which Will Live in Infamy”

Within six months, five battleships and two cruisers were patched and sent to shipyards in Pearl Harbor and on the U.S. mainland for extensive repair. USS Oklahoma, was raised, never repaired and capsized while under tow to the mainland in 1947. USS Arizona and the target ship USS Utah were too heavily damaged for salvage and much of their armament and equipment was removed and used aboard other vessels. Today, the two ships remain where they were sunk, with USS Arizona becoming a war memorial.

Throughout World War II, Pearl Harbor was frequently used in American propaganda:

One further consequence of the attack on Pearl Harbor and its aftermath (notably the Niihau Incident) was that more than 110,000 Japanese American residents and citizens on the west coast were relocated to interior internment camps. In Hawaii, where 150000+ Japanese Americans composed over a third of the population, only 1200 to 1800 were interned in high-security camps such as Sand Island at the mouth of Honolulu harbor and Kilauea Military Camp.

Today, the USS Arizona Memorial on the island of Oahu honors the dead. Visitors to the memorial reach it via boats from the naval base at Pearl Harbor. The memorial was designed by Alfred Preis, and has a sagging center but strong and vigorous ends, expressing “initial defeat and ultimate victory” and it commemorates all the lives lost on December 7, 1941 (both American and Japanese).

USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor

Ceremonies are held annually at Pearl Harbor and although December 7 is known as Pearl Harbor Day, it is not a federal holiday in the United States. The USS Missouri, the last U.S. Navy battleship ever built, where the war ended on September 2, 1945, is now a museum ship moored near the USS Arizona memorial.

USS Missouri (Photo by Justin Brockie Wolcott, Connecticut)

The attack on Pearl Harbor, without a declaration of war and without explicit warning, was judged by the Tokyo Trials to be a war crime.

Memorial Day: A Day of Remembrance!
Originally it was called Decoration Day. A day when Americans went to cemeteries and placed flags or flowers on the graves of the war dead. It was a day to remember ancestors, family members, and loved ones who made the ultimate sacrifice and died in service for the United States of America. Waterloo, New York, was officially declared the birthplace of Memorial Day by President Lyndon Johnson in May 1966, but over two dozen cities and towns claim to be the birthplace of the holiday. Decoration Day was created during the Civil War to honor the dead. It was officially proclaimed on May 5, 1868 by General John Logan, national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic: “The 30th of May, 1868, is designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers, or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village and hamlet churchyard in the land.”

Traditional observance of Memorial day has diminished over the years and many Americans have forgotten the meaning and traditions of the day. At many cemeteries, the graves of American war dead are increasingly ignored or neglected while backyard barbecues and a three day weekend are now the only celebration of the holiday.

DON’T DRINK AND DRIVE!
Memorial Day Weekend in Los Angeles is a “Maximum Enforcement” period by local law enforcement to combat drunk driving. On our way to NoHo we saw LAPD Metro cops on motorcycles already patrolling the San Fernando Valley. Once again we were the designated driver, so we didn’t drink any alcohol before dinner or at the restaurant, so our friend could enjoy his beers and stay safe in North Hollywood.

Neon Clown Drive-by at Circus Liquor in North Hollywood

SATURDAY

Chore Day! Laundry and Spring Cleaning! We spent most of the day trying to clean and get organized. We are on a mission to get rid of the clutter and stuff we don’t need.

We finished and posted a new Blog about the “Slugfest in Hollywood” on Tuesday: the Dixie Hollywood Hotel, Dinner at Susan Finegar’s Mud Hen Tavern and The Cure at the Hollywood Bowl”.

Dinner: Enchilada Nachos! Used the leftover Mexican food from last night: cheese enchilada cut up with the rice and beans and then more cheese over tortilla chips with taco bell hot sauce. “Life is short, make it saucy!”

And we watched “The Intern” with Robert Deniro and Anne Hathaway on HBO. A cute film about a 70 year old retired business man (played by Deniro) who interns for a successful online women’s clothing company owned by a young, overworked woman with an adorable young child and a “stay at home” husband (played by Hathaway). The cast is rounded out by a crew of young, nerdy “Tech Bros” and Rene Russo as the company masseuse.

It’s really a romantic comedy without the romance between Deniro and Hathaway, adding Rene Russo as the hot, younger old person and love interest. It was a fun movie with a great cast, but the happy ending was kind of lacking in resolution and could have been much better! Deniro got to chew on the scenery and play a custom tailored part and that’s what he’s great at. Hathaway is a terrific actress, and this role mirrors her part in “The Devil Wears Prada” as a young and successful working woman conquering adversity.

CLICK ON ANY SMALL PIC TO SEE A LARGER PIC AND VIEW THE GALLERY!

Deniro with a cute kid

Deniro & the Tech Bros

Deniro & Rene Russo

And we ate some Hot Tamales to better simulate the “movie theatre” experience.

Hot Tamales!

We also did a little Periscope viewing too. We watched The Cure live from Washington and Steven Brody Stevens killing it and rockin’ comedy at the Improv on Melrose.

And we were going to do stuff today and then we turned on HBO and saw they were running a marathon of “The Pacific”, the under appreciated follow up to “Band of Brothers” in honor of Memorial Day. It’s a great period piece about World War II and the war against the Japanese. So, we didn’t watch all 10 hours, but we did watch…and worked.

Hot Dogs! Sunday afternoon with the dogs in the backyard:

We were invited to go to the movies, but passed because we didn’t want to see the film and we hate going to the theatre on weekends or holidays because there are just too many people, and all it really takes is one person with a cell phone to ruin the experience for me. So, we stayed at the home office and someone brought me dinner!

Sunday night “must see TV” on HBO: New episodes of “Game of Thrones”, “Silicon Valley” and a previously aired episode of “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver”

SPOILER ALERT!

“Hold the door!” We waited all week for this episode of Game of Thrones. Last week’s episode “The Door” was excellent. And sad. And emotionally involving. And as always, there are so many story lines running that each episode feels incomplete…
And so, with great anticipation we waited and watched this week’s episode.

Grapefruit, coffee, leftover cold orange chicken for breakfast and then back to bed…

The annual “Band of Brothers” marathon on HBO was interrupted by a LIVE televised Memorial Day Holiday High Speed Pursuit at noon!

“Band of Brothers” is a 2001 American war drama based on historian Stephen E. Ambrose’s 1993 non-fiction book. It is based on the true World War Two story of the men of Easy Company from the US Army 101st Airborne division who fought in Europe during the war.

NOTE: We’ve seen “Band of Brothers” in it’s entirety a couple of times. So when a social media alert was broadcast about another LIVE high speed pursuit in Los Angeles, we switched over and began watching the car chase.

Memorial Day Holiday LIVE Televised High Speed Pursuit:

Memorial Day Holiday High Speed Pursuit in Southern California

The French Open was rained out so NBC stayed on the chase that started at about 10:30am… Stolen vehicle: a silver KIA Sorrento SUV with an “impaired” driver on surface streets in East Los Angeles. We picked up the pursuit at noon as the suspect got on the empty freeways and continued driving for almost 3 hours. NBC commentary was complete speculation and stupidity, so we switched over to ABC and then KCAL9 (our local CBS affiliate). Please just the facts, not ignorant newscaster’s uninformed opinions!

Memorial Day Holiday High Speed Pursuit in Southern California

Memorial Day Holiday High Speed Pursuit in Southern California

And Fox 11 had coverage too:

Memorial Day Holiday High Speed Pursuit in Southern California

At 1pm, KCAL 9 and FOX both cut off their news coverage and returned to regular programming, so we switched back to ABC and NBC because KTLA 5 News didn’t pick up the chase at all for their one o’clock broadcast. And just after 1pm he ran out of gas on the 405 near the Long Beach Freeway, smoked some more meth in the car and then surrendered without further incident to the California Highway Patrol.

Memorial Day Holiday High Speed Pursuit – 405 South near the Long Beach Fwy

Memorial Day High Speed Pursuit – Suspect in Custody!

Just another holiday Monday in Los Angeles! And with the suspect in custody and the chase over at 1:30pm, it was time for lunch.

He liberated Venezuela, Colombia (including Panama at the time), Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia (a country named after him) from the Spanish Empire and helped lay the foundation for democracy in Latin America. He was President and Dictator of the Gran Colombia Republic from 1819-1830.

Simon Bolivar Statue in San Francisco (copyright 2014 JoshWillTravel)

Simon Bolivar Statue in San Francisco (copyright 2014 JoshWillTravel)

NOTE: There is a statue just like this one in Bolivar Plaza in Caracas, Venezuela. There are other statues, monuments, plazas, squares and streets in honor of him all over the world.

United Nations Plaza at the Civic Center in San Francisco (copyright 2014 JoshWillTravel)

WHAT SAN FRANCISCO DOESN’T WANT YOU TO SEE:

“Wha’Cha Need?” at the Simon Bolivar Statue in San Francisco (copyright 2014 JoshWillTravel)

There’s a HUGE homeless population in the city of San Francisco! Go back to the first picture and you’ll see people sleeping on the lawn and hanging out on the plaza. Everywhere you go in the city there are homeless! Many of them are in need of serious mental health services!

The picture of the homeless at the statue (above) is actually a picture of an open-air drug market! While I was walking around taking pictures, I witnessed deals going down here and at other locations at the UN Plaza. Although not unexpected, I was surprised by the obvious nature of their unlawful enterprise and the lack of police presence and attention. While I did see a pair of cops walking down by the fountain, you can see in the picture that the dealers operate without concern for keeping it undercover….

San Francisco is a beautiful and historic city, but the terrible traffic, the huge homeless population and the current urban blight really takes the shine off the city by the bay.

Simon Bolivar Statue, “California” and City Hall in San Francisco (copyright 2014 JoshWillTravel)

As a final note, I didn’t know it was Simon Bolivar’s birthday when I started this blog, so that’s either a happy coincidence or something else….

It’s D-Day! Today is the 70th Anniversary of the Invasion of Normandy!

Operation Overlord was the name assigned to the invasion of the Continent. The Normandy landing was the first phase, codenamed Operation Neptune, and the amphibious attack was the largest seaborne invasion in history. The operation began the Allied invasion of German-occupied western Europe, the establishment of a beachhead on the European continent, and it eventually led to the defeat of Nazi Germany and the end of World War II.

At Omaha Beach, part of the Mulberry Harbour B is still visible in the sea at Arromanches, a few beach obstacles remain, and the Longues-sur-Mer battery is nearby. A memorial to the American National Guard sits at the location of a former German strongpoint. Pointe du Hoc is little changed from 1944, with the terrain covered with bomb craters and most of the concrete bunkers still in place. The Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial is in Colleville-sur-Mer. Museums are located at Sainte-Marie-du-Mont, and Sainte-Mère-Église. Two German military cemeteries are also located nearby. The Juno Beach Centre, opened in 2003, was funded by the Canadian federal and provincial governments, France, and Canadian veterans. Pegasus Bridge, a target of the British 6th Airborne, was the site of some of the earliest action of the Normandy landings. The bridge was replaced in 1994 by one similar in appearance, and the original is now housed on the grounds of a nearby museum complex.

Beny-sur-Mer (Canadian) War Cemetery in Normandy, France

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It’s also National Donut Day!

The first Friday of June each year is also National Donut Day! Originally created by The Salvation Army in 1938 to honor the men and women who served doughnuts to soldiers during World War I, you can get a FREE DONUT most places today!

If you visit Tiananmen Square today, you would never know what happened there twenty five years ago……

Tiananmen Square – Beijing, China

In spring of 1989, student demonstrators occupied Tiananmen Square for seven weeks. The protest was ended when hardline leaders declared martial law on May 20 and ordered the military to enforce martial law and mobilize as many as 300,000 troops in the capital. The crackdown that occurred on June 3 & 4 became known as the Tiananmen Square Massacre, and is commonly known as the June Fourth Incident in China.

Chinese troops with assault rifles and tanks inflicted casualties on unarmed civilians trying to block the military’s advance. The image of one unidentified unarmed man standing immobile in the square facing down a column of tanks speaks a thousand words. Moments later the tanks would crush and kill him.

The Chinese government condemned the protest as a “counter-revolutionary riot”, and has prohibited all forms of discussion of the protest or remembrance of the Massacre. Any and all references to the events have been censored from state media, the internet, schools, universities and modern history.

Tiananmen Square Massacre censorship mocked by “The Simpsons”

To date, many aspects of the events remain unknown or unconfirmed because of Chinese censorship. Estimates of the death toll range from a few hundred to thousands of people.

p.s. Remember that incredible Bird’s Nest Olympic Stadium from the opening ceremonies in 2008? Here it is, present day, a 40 billion dollar ruin. The workers are picking trash out of the water in this picture from 2013:

The Washington Monument, the most prominent structure in Washington, D.C., reopened to the public yesterday after being closed for repairs from damage caused by the 5.8 magnitude earthquake on August 23, 2011!

Washington Monument (copyright 2010 JoshWillTravel)

The 555-foot, 5-1/8″ marble obelisk was built between 1848 and 1884 as a tribute to George Washington’s military leadership from 1775-1783 during the American Revolution. He led the Continental Army to victory, and then became the nation’s first president under the Constitution. Construction took place in two major phases, 1848-56, and 1876-84. The monument was dedicated on February 21, 1885, and officially opened to the public on October 9, 1888. http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/wash/dc72.htm

Sometimes the best place to travel is your own backyard! We had perfect weather all weekend long: sunny and warm with a nice breeze so it wasn’t too hot.

The view out my front door this evening:

San Fernando Valley Sunset (copyright 2013 JoshWillTravel)

Friday Night – Shabbat Dinner

On The Menu: Steak, Wild Salmon, Crudite’ (celery and cucumber with ranch dressing), Steamed Broccoli and Carrots, Corn on the Cob, Challah, and Haagen-Daaz Ice Cream for dessert. And I did the cooking!

Friday night – Shabbat dinner (copyright 2013 JoshWillTravel)

Friday night – Shabbat dinner (copyright 2013 JoshWillTravel)

Friday night – Shabbat dinner (copyright 2013 JoshWillTravel)

Friday night – Shabbat dinner (copyright 2013 JoshWillTravel)

Friday night – Shabbat dinner (copyright 2013 JoshWillTravel)

Friday night – Shabbat dinner (copyright 2013 JoshWillTravel)

Friday night – Shabbat dinner (copyright 2013 JoshWillTravel)

Friday night – Shabbat dinner (copyright 2013 JoshWillTravel)

Saturday Morning – Meeting at the Corner Bakery (you can call it work, because it was)

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